Where you work these days has changed out of all recognition from the office of yesteryear.  A bricks and mortar fixed address where whatever you did took place and nowhere else. One address you commuted to, possibly for years on end.

Fifty years ago there was no computer, no mobile phone, and the concept of allowing your staff to work from home would have seemed laughable.

Fast forward to when Apollo 11 made a moon landing in 1969, guided by computers with less computing power than you would have had on your smartphone or average USB stick and you get an idea of how far we have come but it is constantly evolving.

The work place

Hot desking

One of the major changes to the office environment that arrived around 1990 was hot desking, believed to save companies 30% costs, due to needing much smaller offices but at this stage you do need employees to function at home also. You have 500 employees and only 250 desks. This evolved from a naval practice of hot racking, where sailors on different shifts used the same bunks, thus saving valuable on board space. Initially a European idea, it took off in Silicon valley way back and is currently regaining traction with employers over here, but there are plenty of downsides, lowering morale being one of them, infections and higher sick rates being another.

Co-working

This is a more recent evolution where the one man band, or small company can work in a shared environment alongside others. This is a much less isolated way to work and you can benefit from the group energy and ideas, though the others around you have nothing to do with your company.

Serviced offices

This highly effective option has been around for a long time. Totally flexible, move in and out to suit, stay weeks, month or years. As a small but growing company you don't need to be paying out for office space you haven't yet grown into and buying is not an early intelligent option, so you stay in a serviced office and as you expand just move into a larger office, most likely in the same building with minimal disruption.

The virtual office

There are various levels of VO. You might be a one man company but spend your day out on the road. Your calls are diverted to a virtual receptionist while you are out and about and you can pay to have your mail delivered to a prime office address, that gives a small company a much larger footprint.

The home office

All roads are beginning to point to the home office, no matter how many of the other options you use above and as an employee at any level, you would do well to ensure you can carry out any function necessary in your job, at home. Basic stuff really.

It is now a legal requirement that a company offers their staff the ability to work remotely, though that brings with it a host of problems for the larger company. Accessibility to the company's network, security, whose device do you use; how to quantify the output of a remote worker?

These issues can affect the small business also but they are resolved so much quicker given the access to the technology currently available at good prices. It wasn't that long ago that an entry level laptop sold for £1,000 and you can now pick them up for around a quarter of that.

Printers can do so much more than print, remotely if need be. They can carry out document managing and way back, basic scanning was a nightmare but is now routine. I always have a special bond with my home printer, a foundation stone of home working in my opinion, up there with the kettle.

Broadband, a somewhat unsung hero, is now so much faster and makes emailing, research, downloading documents and anything you might want to do involving the internet so much quicker.

As far as technology is concerned, did the tablet kill the PC or the laptop? No! it now sits alongside the PC, laptop and smart phone as a tool of the trade when needed. The ultimate laptop killing tablet may be out there but possibly a few versions away from victory and the right price point. During the day I work on all four devices. It makes life easier for me but think of the problems that it would cause a large company, with an IT department trying to implement security and synching procedures for 500 people doing the same.

Office on the move

This could be you in your vehicle, on the train, or in an area such as a coffee shop that has wifi as the "pull" to get you in. Many companies are banning their employees from logging on to networks from these locations as hackers see them as prime grounds to steal data when the target is relaxed and has let their guard down. How you work in these circumstances is a prime concern.

There are options available in more secure environments so seek those out when travelling at motorway stops, airports and stations.

The Office of 2016 is a nebulous place and different things to different people. Thanks to the internet we can work from anywhere, so your office can be wherever you lay your metaphorical hat. Thanks to the variety of cloud offerings we can access our documents and computer from anywhere and we can share files through various channels, such as Dropbox and other consumer based public clouds including Facebook.

Joining the smart phone in Smart World is the humble television and though I hate the phrase "Internet of Things" that is also set to open up more portals into the world of the internet.

All good and even in the small home office you probably have a minimum of 100 times the computer fire power of the Apollo moon shot but you only need one weak link to bring it all down.

Think security at all times and in all situations and remember companies don't ban their employees from using unsecured hotspots for nothing.